Research Funding

Currently enrolled GW students are eligible to apply. Funds may be used for travel, living expenses, research assistance and other expenses related to field research; they cannot be used for tuition, equipment, or fees.

Most awards are between $400 and $1,800. Grant recipients are required to present highlights of their findings at a departmental student conference or at another venue approved by their mentor.

To prepare a strong proposal, it is important to work with a faculty mentor or advisor in the Anthropology Department. This is particularly true for undergraduates, since their faculty advisor has to endorse their proposal for consideration. All our core faculty members are available for consultation about the process.

Although some people have received two Cotlow awards, preference is given to applicants who have not already received funding. Among doctoral student applicants, preference is also given to those who have not yet advanced to candidacy with the intent that Cotlow awards may assist in completing pilot fieldwork or data collection. Awards are not given to undergraduate seniors unless they are continuing enrollment in one of our Masters programs for the next year.

Proposals are due the first Friday in March. Fill out and submit the application form (PDF) and email it to [email protected]. If you have received a previous Cotlow award, please include a statement in your current application reporting the results of previous Cotlow support. Awardees are announced in April. 

The fund was created by a $150,000 bequest from the estate of Lewis Cotlow (1898-1987), an explorer, author and filmmaker who attended GW.

Among the many studies the Cotlow Fund has supported are an examination of fair trade activists in San Francisco; Mesoamerican ceramics; midwifery in Washington, D.C.; rumors of organ trafficking in Cambodia; the behavior of orphaned and non-orphaned baboons; and Hopi attempts to preserve intangible aspects of their heritage.

For information on applying, please contact the Department for more information. 

The endowment was created by a generous gift from William Warren, a retired Foreign Service Officer, who received a B.A. in 1967 from what is now the Elliott School of International Affairs. He was American Consul in Adana, Turkey, served as Charge d'Affaires of the American Embassy in the Solomon Islands and in Samoa, and held other overseas posts. Warren established two awards, the Thomas and Ola Herbert Reidling Undergraduate Award for B.A. or B.S. candidates and the Zelma Reidling Warren Bannister and William Warren Graduate Fellowship Award for M.A. and Ph.D. candidates.

In 2008, the fund's first year, five undergraduates received awards to aid their work at Megiddo, a Bronze and Iron Age site in Israel. Since then, the Megiddo excavation continued to benefit from Warren awardees, but undergraduate and graduate students have also worked elsewhere in Asia, East Africa, and North America.

Grants are awarded annually in the spring on the basis of financial need and potential for making a significant contribution to anthropology. The money is intended to be used for academic books and other school-related costs for graduate students in the Anthropology Department. 

Awards are made on the basis of faculty nomination and selection by the department’s directors of graduate studies. Students should contact faculty directly by early February in order to request a nomination.

Ann Webster (1929–94) received a bachelor’s degree in history from Wellesley College in 1950. After marrying Harry Webster, a foreign-service officer, she spent much of the next two decades abroad, raising four children. She first began teaching in the early 1960s in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), shifting the focus from history and geography of Europe to that of Africa. In 1977, she returned to school at GW, obtaining her MA in Anthropology. She was hired as an adjunct faculty member to teach undergraduate courses, and she enjoyed great success as a teacher. She volunteered her time both within GW and in the larger community, working in an Urban League tutoring program focused on students at H.D. Cook Elementary School in Washington, D.C.